Thrift Home Decor Haul & Thrift with Me | what can I thrift with a $15 budget

I have Marie Kondo-ed my condo, and now renovating my apartment. I had a strict goal to thrift on a budget for home decor items, something that I haven’t done in a long time. When thrifting, you can only allocate time for one thing or another, and I often forget the home section. This time I was able to find so many cute decor and even a DIY piece. I love the thrift store for straw baskets, vases, glassware, and knick knack decor pieces. I also learned that the thrift store is chock full of beautiful gold photo frames, and really unique art. I can’t wait to go back!

Home decor is my favourite thing to thrift! Lately I've been infatuated with getting wall hangings, particularly in a style that (at least here in Sweden) was popular in like the 50s and 60s and I remember my grandparents having a lot of them. The thrift stores and online auction sites has been a goldmine!

I worked at Bath and Body works. It’s policy to throw EVERYTHING away. If a customer returns an item (btw, you can return ANYTHING from the store even if it’s out of season etc) we ask if it was used. If the customer says yes it HAS to be throw away. If it hasn’t been used it’s sent back to the main warehouses and brought back for those giant sales. Yes, those sale items are mostly returns. Staff can not take home any items even if the item is still perfectly good and staff even have to have bag checks at the end of each shift, no staff member is exempt including managers. We are even told to throw the candles into the garbage hard to break them so they can’t be re-used at all.

The only items the stores recycle is the cardboard boxes and signs. Everything else is trashed.

Also, interesting fact, if a wallflower (those are the little scented oils you put in the wall plug ins) break we have a special biohazard like bucket of special sand like stuff to put them in and we have to use a special heavy duty industrial cleaner specialized for them to remove the oil. They are intensely difficult to clean up and the process really makes you wonder what chemical compounds are in them. 😬

Another insider secret is that if you are ever disappointed or dissatisfied with a shopping experience (ie: rude staff or no one to help you/greet you), item, or during a return you should complain to the manager (there is always one on staff. It’s policy.). If the manager does not satisfy you complain to the main office. If a complain is filed, no matter how small, it HAS to be resolved. It goes against that stores location and the main manager of that store if it is not resolved. It’s handled very seriously! So NEVER give up and think ‘oh well’ if you’re dissatisfied.